It’s a gripping photographic moment — and Gelber hopes the shot will win a prestigious contest run by the Canon camera company along with famed Hollywood director Ron Howard.

But there’s one catch: Contest rules dictate that Gelber has to get a signed release from every person visible in the photo. Unfortunately, he didn’t even know who the lovebirds were until this week when he put the image on Facebook to ask the public for help in locating them.

Now he has only until 5 p.m. today to get their permission or the photo will be disqualified from Canon’s “Project Imagina10n” contest.

“It doesn’t look good, but I’m hoping for a miracle,” Gelber told The Post as he waited last night for the accused graffiti artists to give him an answer.

It’s not clear if the two alleged vandals would play ball. He reached out to Creque, but she cut off contact with him.

At her apartment yesterday she and a man believed to be Murphy slipped an envelope under the door bearing the words, “F–k Off.”

They were charged last month with criminal mischief and making graffiti after Creque allegedly kept lookout while Murphy scrawled “CASH 4” in pink paint on a Lower East Side building, according to a criminal complaint.

Gelber vowed to share any money he makes from the “Last Kiss” photo with the duo.

“I’ll just tell him don’t use it to buy spray paint,” he laughed.

But even if they do sign off, Gelber sill has one more problem. He has a release only from one of the cops in the photo — the other is on vacation.